docs: def remove_empty_ranks(self, tax_list):
          '''
          Removes empty rank prefixes
          
          Parameters
          ----------
          tax_list    : list
              A list of taxonomic ranks.
          Returns
          -------
          A list of taxonomic ranks with empty prefixes removed.
          '''
          new_tax_list = []
          for rank in tax_list:
              if rank not in self.meaningless_taxonomic_names:
                  new_tax_list.append(rank)
          return new_tax_list